dids

dIds is a term that can refer to several concepts in information technology. In contemporary discussions, it most often stands for Decentralized Identifiers, usually written DIDs, a W3C standard for identifiers that are not tied to a single centralized authority. The lowercase/uppercase variation dIds may appear in informal writing, but the underlying concept is to enable decentralized identity management and portability across systems.

A DID is a globally unique identifier that resolves to a DID Document containing public keys, authentication methods, service endpoints, and other metadata. The document is retrieved through a DID resolver that implements a specific DID method, which defines how the identifier is stored and accessed on a particular registry or distributed ledger. DIDs enable verifiable credentials and self-sovereign authentication while allowing subjects to maintain control over their identifiers without reliance on a central registry.

DID ecosystems emphasize privacy, portability, and control. They support key rotation, revocation, and selective disclosure of information, and are used in self-sovereign identity projects, decentralized applications, and identity wallets. Interoperability is achieved through common data models for DID Documents and verifiable credentials, along with standardized verification methods.

History and status: The concept emerged in the early 2010s and was formalized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The DID Core specification was published as a W3C Recommendation, and the architecture has since been extended with multiple DID methods and interoperability profiles. Adoption spans various industries, including finance, healthcare, and supply chains, though challenges remain in governance, user experience, and cross-domain interoperability.

Related topics include decentralized identifiers, verifiable credentials, self-sovereign identity, and the decentralized web.